COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP

Leadership Lessons: The following example, as the other lessons on this site, is an illustration of how collaborative leaders resolve conflict, communicate effectively at higher levels and make decisions that resolve problems through critical thinking and collaborative teamwork. It provides a valuable teaching tool to help develop future collaborative leaders.

                                                                                            Collaborative Leadership and Conflict Resolution

                                                                                                                         The Egypt-Israel Peace Agreement                           

       In the international setting a good example of how Collaborative Leadership worked to resolve conflict was the Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin standoff with President Jimmy Carter as facilitator/mediator. This well-documented effort to achieve a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel began when the Egyptian President Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Begin were invited by Carter to the United States to work toward an agreement. Both of these greater leaders had strong reservations and many differences. Various trade-offs were made and many disagreements discussed. Several times each party was prepared to leave with very little progress on tough areas of disagreement. All during the process much of Carter’s role involved keeping Sadat and Begin together to try to move beyond the trade-offs and disagreements.

     In the end it was not so much the negotiations and the trade-offs between the two men, which brought about peace. It was the desire and commitment of both parties to the peace process, which achieved an ”understanding” since these were two strong-minded individuals with major areas of disagreement. Somehow, by working thorough these problems with the help of Carter as facilitator, they transcended their differences to find a collaborative, shared value of peace without acquiescence. They achieved a level of mutual respect and trust in the process which moved them to a higher order of thinking and communicating and helped them to find a way to acknowledge their differences and transcend them for the long term reciprocal benefits. It is important to note that this agreement was established during the Carter Presidency and has lasted thirty years. While other nations in the Middle East continue to contest Israel’s right to exist, Egypt has been a source of a more moderate approach to Israel based upon this historic resolution.

     Clearly, as demonstrated in  this case,  the  synergistic  effect  does not require agreement as much  as a strong  willingness  to find  areas of shared values  and  trust   beyond  the  differences.  No problems are too difficult to work through when differences are accepted and then transcended.  Synergy is stimulated by diversity when the individual collaborators are able to acknowledge, affirm and then transcend the differences for mutual benefit and understanding. Affirming and then moving beyond differences provides the critical substance of which all synergistic and collaborative groups are made.   Significant learning, critical communication and transformation for all of the participants arise from this affirmation, acceptance and transcendence in the collaborative group process.

       Transformation may be reflected in changes in critical views on issues by learning to see a problem from a different perspective. Individual transformation may also be life changing in nature as occurring in a new life direction and understanding of how to take charge of a new purpose, relationship or experience. Sadat and Begin began to see beyond their differences to accept each other and agree on the principle, that even with their differences, they can learn to live and work with each other. Group transformation may also be a synthesis of critical views on issues or an organization changing idea or experience, which has a synergistic effect on other groups. The Sadat-Begin Accord became a model for peace in the Middle East. And, significantly, it was more of a facilitated collaborative accord than a mediated peace agreement since many differences remained. But, the direction for a shared peace, trust, understanding and reciprocal benefit between the two countries was established and it has endured over the years.

 
Note: The above example was excerpted from the book, Collaborative Leadership and Global Transformation by Timothy Stagich, Ph.D.

 
                                                                                       DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
 

1. How were Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin able to move beyond their differences to develop a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel?
2. What was the role of President Carter in this process and how did he help to facilitate this historic agreement?
3. What role did synergy play in this collaborative conflict resolution process?
4. Why was it not necessary to resolve all of the areas of dispute and differences between Egypt and Israel in order to come to an agreement between them?
5. How is this agreement based upon collaborative and synergistic principles even more valuable than a mediated settlement of specific differences and why has it endured over the years?